Construction Acoustics

the scientific discipline that studies ways to control noise in rooms, buildings, and other environments by means of architectural design and acoustical construction methods. Construction acoustics is both a branch of applied acoustics and a division of structural physics.

Design techniques used in construction acoustics include the rational use of space in buildings and rooms to control noise, removal of noise sources from buildings and rooms, and the optimum planning of neighborhood units, residential areas, and sites for industrial plants. Construction acoustic methods include the use of structural components and devices that provide efficient reduction in noise levels (seeSOUNDPROOFING and SOUND-ABSORBING STRUCTURES). These methods are closely related to the problem of reducing noise in industrial, sanitary, and engineering equipment, transport vehicles, mechanized tools, and household appliances. In many cases, it is best to reduce noise at its source. Construction acoustics is also concerned with the study and development of acoustic materials. Problems in construction acoustics have become very important in modern construction. Measures to control noise improve health, labor efficiency, and working conditions and provide better comfort in buildings.

Construction acoustics arose as an independent scientific discipline in the 1930’s and underwent great advances in the 1950’s as a result of the increase in the number and intensity of noise sources in buildings and other environments, such as motor vehicles, aircraft, and trains. Noise sources in buildings include engineering and plumbing equipment, radios, televisions, tape recorders, and household electrical appliances. The increased use of prefabricated lightweight enclosing structures such as floors, ceilings, and partitions, with relatively poor sound-insulating properties, also accelerated the development of construction acoustics. Scientific studies in construction acoustics are principally conducted in order to develop the theory of sound insulation in enclosing structures and corresponding design methods. The major trends in modern research are the search for the most effective sound-absorbing and sound-insulating components and devices, improved design methods for such components and devices, the development of lightweight enclosing structures with improved sound insulation, and new urban-planning principles providing for the protection of residential sites from transportation noise.

Construction acoustics is based on the theoretical foundations of general acoustics. Its research includes experiments in the laboratory and field; for example, the modeling method is used in studying the sound-insulating properties of enclosing structures and noise propagation in rooms and building-maintenance conduits and shafts and in built-up urban areas.

In the USSR, the principal scientific research center for construction acoustics is the Institute of Structural Physics. Problems in construction acoustics are discussed at congresses conducted by the acoustics committee of the International Union of Pure and Applied Physics working with UNESCO. The Institute of Structural Physics publishes collections of scientific articles on construction acoustics. Outside the USSR, articles on construction acoustics are published in the journals Applied Acoustics (University of Essex, since 1968), the Journal of the Acoustical Society of America (New York, since 1929), and Lärmbekämpfung (Baden-Baden, since 1957).